Category: sustainability – Page 301
A Biodegradable Spray Applied to Fresh Produce Could Eliminate a Lot of Foodborne Illnesses and Plastic Packaging
That’s not a Faberge egg on the right. It is an avocado sprayed with an antimicrobial fibre to keep the produce from rotting and could become the future way we preserve fruit and vegetables.
Naturally occurring pullulan fibres with antimicrobial agents when sprayed on test avocados proves better than plastic packaging.
Soof Azani and Lir Braverman propose collapsible solar-powered bike for last-mile deliveries
Soof Azani and Lir Braverman’s proposal for a solar-powered cargo bike that aims to facilitate local deliveries is the latest of 10 visionary transportation projects selected for Dezeen’s Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival.
Called D50, Azani and Braverman’s concept aims to combine solar power with micro-mobility in a bid to improve the distribution of goods while reducing carbon emissions.
The vehicle, which is intended for developing countries, is designed for heavy loads to expedite last-mile deliveries for traders and businesses.
IKEA will now sell solar panels
IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has announced plans to sell home solar panels in the US — a move that could democratize and demystify access to solar.
Solar hesitancy: The benefits of solar go beyond protecting the environment — solar panels are cheaper than ever, and between the lower energy bills and government subsidies, a home solar system could pay for itself before the panels need to be replaced.
Despite that, only 3.2% of single-family detached homes have solar panels, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Off-grid hydrogen generation technology for on-demand power
Spotted: Although relatively expensive to produce at present, and with storage often cited as a concern, green hydrogen fuel production is increasing. A naturally occurring and superabundant element, hydrogen is popular for several reasons, including the ability to produce it using renewable energy sources. And now, Element 1’s modular, grid-independent hydrogen generation technology is making the fuel even more accessible.
Designed to efficiently convert methanol to hydrogen to electricity, the technology supports both hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles. The company’s catalytic reactor heats a methanol and water feedstock mix before sending it through a membrane purifier for almost 100 per cent fuel cell grade hydrogen.
Because the modular system produces the fuel as needed, the risk of combustion is nearly eliminated, and specialty storage facilities are redundant. This is because the only material that needs to be stored and transported is the methanol and water feedstock. The hydrogen is then produced on-site. Element 1 provides both small and large-scale solutions, as well as a mobile version specifically for refuelling electric vehicles on the go.
Nextracker & BCI Steel Renovate Abandoned Pittsburgh Steel Factory to Serve Growing U.S. Utility-Scale Solar Market
This is Nextracker’s third new factory, adding to the company’s new Texas and Arizona factories announced in April and May, towards building 10 GW of annual domestic solar tracker capacity. Courtesy of Nextracker — by Pallavi Singla.
Nextracker LLC, the global market leader in utility-scale solar trackers, and BCI Steel, a Pittsburgh-based steel fabricator, this week announced the reopening of the historic Bethlehem Steel manufacturing factory in nearby Leetsdale to produce solar tracker equipment for large-scale solar power plants.
The steel processing plant will incorporate both BCI Steel’s new and reshored equipment shipped to the U.S. from factories in Malaysia and Brazil. Solar tracker products produced at the factory will serve rapidly growing solar markets in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, and Ohio.
“BCI is proud to advance Pittsburgh’s legacy as the heart of America’s steel industry,” said Matt Carroll, CEO of BCI Steel. “This partnership with Nextracker showcases our steel fabrication and quality control technology and unlocks additional domestic solar capacity with our low-cost manufacturing.”
An off-grid Starlink user achieves ‘infinite WiFi’ with 300 watts of solar
SpaceX’s Starlink provided the fastest satellite internet in the world.
Starlink has been equally praised in recent months for helping civilians in Ukraine and criticized for making astronomical work harder to the point it might endanger humanity.
There’s no denying the experience it provides is impressive, with one user recently telling IE it allowed him to live an enviable off-grid lifestyle with 300 watts of solar energy.
Cobalt Anti-MXenes as Promising Anode Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries
The current electric vehicle market is entirely dominated by lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, due to the limited and unequal distribution of LIB raw materials on earth, there is a continuous effort to design alternate storage devices. Among the alternatives to LIBs, sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) are at the forefront because sodium resources are ubiquitous worldwide and virtually inexhaustible. However, one of the major drawbacks of the NIBs is their low specific charge capacity. Since the specific charge capacity of a cell can be improved by increasing the specific charge capacity of the anode material, there is a constant effort to find suitable anode materials. Recent studies suggested that a cobalt-boride (CoB) anti-MXene material (a newly discovered two-dimensional material) can yield superior specific charge capacities for LIBs than traditional graphite-based anodes.
Team creates anode-free Na batteries with high energy densities and long cycle lifetimes
In recent years, engineers worldwide have been trying to devise new battery and energy storage technologies that are more sustainable and cost-effective. One of the solutions attracting particular interest is sodium-based battery technology.
Sodium-ion batteries could have numerous advantages over conventional and widely used lithium-based batteries. Most notably, as sodium is abundant on our planet and can be easily sourced, they could be affordable and easy to produce on a large-scale.
Despite their possible advantages, most sodium-ion batteries developed so far exhibited low energy densities, due to the relatively large atomic size of sodium and its considerable weight. Typically, these batteries exhibit energy densities below 160 Wh kg-1, which is significantly lower than that of lithium-ion batteries.